Bible Study

Jesus Goes Through Samaria

Text: John 4:1-42

God deliberately sent His Son through hostile territory to seek and save the lost, breaking every barrier to bring living water to every soul.

1. Introduction: The Divine Necessity

In John 4:4, we read one of the most profound yet overlooked statements in all of Scripture: "And he must needs go through Samaria." The King James Version uses the words "must needs" which translates the Greek word edei, meaning it was necessary, obligatory, required. This was not a detour. This was not a coincidence. This was divine necessity.

The Jews of that day considered Samaria off-limits. The hostility between Jews and Samaritans dated back centuries (2 Kings 17:24-41). Jews would travel 40 miles out of their way to avoid passing through Samaria, going instead through the Jordan Valley. To a devout Jew, entering Samaria was defiling. Yet the one true God, the Father, sent His Son directly through hostile Samaritan territory.

This study explores why God made this journey necessary, what it reveals about His heart for the lost, and how Jesus, as God manifest in the flesh, broke every social, ethnic, and gender barrier to offer living water to a woman no one else would approach.

This is a study of God's deliberate, purposeful love -- the same God who moves through hostile territory to seek and save the lost in our day.

2. Context and Background

2.1 The Jew-Samaritan Hostility

The division between Jews and Samaritans was deep and ancient:

Then the LORD did scatter them among the nations, and turned them into a people like as other nations ... And it was so at the dwelling of Samaria, that they feared the LORD, and served their images, according to the customs of the nations from among whom they were carried thither. -- 2 Kings 17:24, 29 (KJV)

This context makes Jesus' decision to "must needs go through Samaria" all the more striking. The Son of God, the Father in flesh, chose to walk directly through territory that His own people considered defiling and hostile.

2.2 The Setting at Jacob's Well

John 4:1-6 sets the stage:

When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) he left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. -- John 4:1-6 (KJV)

Key observations:

2.3 Theological Context: Oneness Perspective

From the Oneness Apostolic Pentecostal understanding, this passage reveals several essential truths about who Jesus is:

3. The OIA Study: John 4:7-26

3.1 OBSERVATION: What Does the Text Say?

Read the passage slowly in the KJV. Notice these details:

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. -- John 4:10 (KJV)

3.2 INTERPRETATION: What Does the Text Mean?

The deeper meaning behind the encounter:

He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. -- 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 (KJV)

3.3 APPLICATION: How Does It Apply?

What this passage demands of us today:

4. Main Point 1: The Necessity of God's Journey

The phrase "he must needs go through Samaria" is the key to the entire passage. The Greek word edei appears 63 times in the New Testament, always carrying the force of divine necessity. It is not suggestion. It is not preference. It is requirement.

4.1 This Was Divine Compulsion

Jesus did not choose Samaria because it was convenient. He chose it because God the Father compelled Him. The one true God, the Creator of all, felt a divine necessity to send His Son through hostile territory. Why? Because there were souls in Samaria who needed the living water of God's Spirit, and God would not let His Son bypass them.

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. -- Luke 19:10 (KJV)

The divine necessity reveals:

4.2 The Father's Heart for the Lost

As Oneness believers, we understand that Jesus IS the Father in flesh. When God the Father sent His Son through Samaria, it was God Himself going to the lost. This is not a God who sits distant and indifferent. This is the one true God who walks into hostile territory because He will not let anyone slip through His fingers.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. -- John 3:16 (KJV)

The Father gave His Son -- not a created being, not a separate person, but His own self manifest in flesh (1 Timothy 3:16) -- to seek and save the lost. This is the heart of God.

5. Main Point 2: Breaking Every Barrier

Jesus did not merely walk through Samaria -- He walked into every barrier that separated people from God and from each other. Let us count them:

Ethnic: Jew vs. Samaritan -- centuries of hatred -- Jesus, a Jew, spoke to a Samaritan woman

Gender: Men did not speak to women in public -- Jesus initiated conversation with her

Religious: Samaritans had corrupted worship -- Jesus honored her quest for truth

Moral: She had five husbands -- a sinner -- Jesus knew and still offered living water

Social: She was an outcast, coming at noon alone -- Jesus gave her dignity and purpose

Spiritual: She did not know the true God -- Jesus revealed Himself as the Messiah

5.1 The Woman's Shock

In John 4:9, the woman is stunned. Jewish men did not speak to Samaritan women in public. Jewish rabbis did not engage Samaritans at all. Yet Jesus, the Father in flesh, broke every convention. He did not come to confirm the barriers -- He came to tear them down.

This is the pattern of God's kingdom. The living water of the Holy Spirit does not respect human boundaries. When God moves, He crosses every line that man has drawn.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. -- Galatians 3:28 (KJV)

5.2 The Same Jesus Walks Through Your Hostile Territory Today

Just as Jesus went through Samaria:

As licensed ministers of the UPCI, we are called to follow this same pattern. The living water is not for the comfortable. It is for the desperate. And God sends us through hostile territory to bring it.

6. Main Point 3: Living Water for Every Soul

The heart of this passage is the offer of living water. Jesus does not offer the woman religion, rules, or ritual. He offers her Himself -- the living water of God's Spirit.

6.1 What Is the Living Water?

In Oneness Pentecostal theology, the living water is the Holy Spirit -- the very presence of God flowing through and within the believer. Jesus makes this explicit in John 7:

But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. -- John 7:39 (KJV)

The living water is:

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. -- 1 Corinthians 12:13 (KJV)

6.2 The Woman's Transformation

Notice what happens when she receives the living water:

A despised Samaritan woman -- the least person in that society -- became the instrument through which an entire city encountered the Savior. This is what the living water does. It transforms the recipient into a witness.

7. Gospel Connection

This passage is fundamentally about the gospel -- the good news of Jesus Christ, the one true God manifest in the flesh. Here is how the cross speaks to every element of this story:

And the word of the Lord was published throughout all Judaea, and through Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. -- Acts 8:1; 1:8 (KJV)

The gospel is not for the worthy. It is not for the comfortable. It is for the weary at the well, the sinner at noon, the outcast with nothing to offer. The one true God in Christ crossed every barrier to bring you living water.

8. Key Application

8.1 Personal Application

8.2 Ministerial Application

8.3 Specific Action Steps

9. Closing

9.1 Closing Illustration

A missionary once told a story about walking through a war zone to reach a village that had never heard the gospel. When he arrived, the villagers asked him, "Why did you come all this way? Why didn't you send someone else?" His answer was simple: "Because I was the one who knew the way. And because someone had to come." Jesus knew the way to Samaria. He knew the danger. He knew the rejection. And He went anyway. Why? Because there was a woman at a well who needed living water. And because there was a city that needed a Savior. And because the one true God in Christ will not let anyone slip through His fingers.

9.2 Closing Prayer Guide

Pray through these points:

9.3 Follow-Up Questions for Small Group

9.4 Scripture Memory Verse

Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. -- John 4:13-14 (KJV)

Alternative memory verse:

And the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all things that ever I did. -- John 4:39 (KJV)
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